Running a footbag net tournament

From Footbag Reference

Contents

Before the tournament

You must have a net director and preferably one person in charge for each discipline (open singles net, open doubles net, intermediate singles / doubles, open women's singles / doubles and open mixed doubles).

The director must have an idea about how much time and how many net courts are available.

The director must have a good idea about the total amounts of games to be played (do not forget games for 3rd places and consolation rounds).

Before the event starts the director must have prepared the seeding for all disciplines using online registration. (It is easier to modify your seeding with scratches and additions then to make it in the morning).

Scratches and additions: The director must prepare different scenarios with more or less than the number of registered players. Under the best of circumstances, with the best planning, changes will happen at the last minute before competition starts, and having to scramble to redo the entire event can cause major delays in your tournament.

Pool sheets, sheets for games up to finals and consolation rounds must be pre-printed and you should have twice as many copies as you have pools. Be sure to keep all pool sheets and results in a 3-ring binder or in a file box that is always at the scores table.

Provide a kit per pool: 1 pen, 1 clipboard (or a piece of cardboard) and the pre-printed pool sheet.

Provide sufficient official tournament footbags. This means you should buy or have sponsored enough footbags before the event to be able to lend one footbag for each court you set up.

Optionally, you should have one official in uniform (crew t-shirt at least) per pool. This person will be the official judge for all games, write done the results, and pass them on to the responsible individual for the discipline. If no official is available, make players officiate each others' games as per PT Lovern's proposal.

Infrastructure

Reserve a football (soccer) field or a park with an even playground and painted lines.

Be sure to have a shaded area for players to relax between games; it can get hot and players can become overheated after intense matches. It would help to provide some chairs or other seating for the shaded area. If there are no naturally shaded areas, consider providing one or more "pop-up" canopies so players can escape the direct sunlight.

If possible, provide a referee's chair for each court. This is especially important for spotlighted matches such as semifinals and finals.

Sufficient changing rooms with showers and toilets are highly recommended, to keep the players nearby and comfortable.

Water is critical -- either provide bottled water (in large enough quantities for all players to last the entire tournament) or tap water (e.g., water fountains) within two minutes' walk.

Information desk and player area

If possible, combine the players' relaxation/cooling-off area with the information desk, so players are kept close to the organized aspects of the event and not incentivized to leave the site.

1 central court, surrounded by barriers 3 meters out from the field (so spectators can't interfere with the game). A walking path between the barriers and the bleachers should also be available.

After the competition

You must post full results within 10 days on footbag.org. If you don't publish them, your event won't receive IFPA sanctioning the following year. You can add results to your event listings by simply clicking the MEMBERS link on footbag.org which will show you all the events you're responsible for, and lets you edit them, add results, etc.